Avoid Uber Price Skyrocketing by Waiting a Few Minutes
When demand is high, Uber takes advantage of higher prices, which charge extra for the ride to your destination. But this high cost is easy to avoid, and there is now research to back it up.
Researchers at Northeastern University wanted to test the algorithm that Uber uses to decide on price increases. NPR explains how they did it:
Simply put, they created 43 Uber accounts and wrote a script that logged into those accounts, pinged Uber’s servers every 5 seconds (just like a regular account would), and logging information about Uber drivers in Manhattan and San Francisco.
The team tested their tracking methodology against the publicly available NYC taxi database to ensure they can extrapolate information on the vast majority of vehicles in the fleet. They then looked at Uber car arrivals and departures, and ultimately combined that study with Uber’s publicly available tools and information to analyze how they correlate with skyrocketing prices.
They found that in most cases the price spike lasts less than ten minutes, and often less than five minutes. In short, if you want to get around the skyrocketing Uber prices, it’s usually as easy as waiting a few minutes for them to update prices, or walking a few blocks to a less crowded area. You can read more about the study at the link below.
Uber Surge price? Research says walk a few blocks, wait a few minutes | NPR